Just wondering how everyone is pricing sod installations. I've never done one before, but got a request to do one. I would imagine that its done by the square foot, but how are you fuigering how much time it will take to do a square foot. I'm just having trouble with this since I've never laid sod before. The suppliers price that I use is about $.36 cents a square foot. $180 for a 500 square foot pallet. I haven't measured yet, but I think the jobs only going to be 500 to 700 square feet. So its not a big job. What are some of you guys getting a square foot for a sod job. Oh and the prep work of tearing up the old sod, dirt grading, etc will already be done. So I'm not trying to include that in my price. They simply want us to get the sod, deliver it, and lay it down.

Thanks for any help on this.

mybowtie

08-07-2008, 09:00 PM

If all the prep work is done, 2 guys should be able to lay 500-700 of sod in an hr. depending on how much cutting is needed..All depends on how far you have to go for the sod also..I would charge $.30-.40 a sq ft to lay + delivery....:usflag:

Lawnworks

08-07-2008, 10:17 PM

It is going to blow half a day... I would charge for whatever you usually get for half a day.

merrimacmill

08-08-2008, 02:37 AM

If all the prep work is done, 2 guys should be able to lay 500-700 of sod in an hr. depending on how much cutting is needed..All depends on how far you have to go for the sod also..I would charge $.30-.40 a sq ft to lay + delivery....:usflag:

Thats about what I was thinking. Went and measured it up today and came up with just under 500 square feet, like 487 or something. So I gave a price of 400 to lay 500 square feet which is just one pallet.

Any more input?

Thanks for the help so far.

mybowtie

08-09-2008, 12:11 AM

It is going to blow half a day... I would charge for whatever you usually get for half a day.

If it takes a half a day to lay 500sq ft of sod with no prep work, your going VERY slow....

thegreek

09-11-2008, 04:44 AM

yeah the guys from the farms a crew of two could do over 1000 sq ft an hr. me im i bit slower if i have some one with me but i could blow through that myself in an hr as long as u know the spacing u can drop it and start a stagger and look to your left for spacing on each row 56 rolls a 504 sq ft of 9 sq ft rolls i could drop those in bout 15 minutes and have it laid and cut in another 30. thats me personally i blow through small jobs with the mp3 player, its alot nicer to get it done before the home owner is even up cause then there not breathing down your neck. p.s. use starter!

Lawnworks

09-11-2008, 07:32 AM

Come on guys get real. It takes about 1 man hour to do a pallet of sod... but if it is only 1 pallet... your efficiency is terrible. I am just saying plan on half the day being blown. We did a job similar to yours last week... $400 labor.

Lite4

09-11-2008, 09:51 AM

It's all about economy of scale. The more volume you have to do the better the price for the customer. I purchase sod locally for around .22 per ft. Anything over 1500 feet I charge .45 installed per foot (includes sod). Anything under that is by the hour T & M.

dragonstrong

09-11-2008, 02:38 PM

Hi guys, How did you guys charge all prepare work?
Include: tear up the old soil, removel old grass, mix into the new topsoil, mix into the natural sheep, and roll them..?

sunray237

09-11-2008, 11:16 PM

It depends on your over head, lay of the land, difficulty of prep work.
I'm 51 and lay the rectangle pieces rather than rolls, I figure it at 450 per pallet around here.
that covers prep and laying and I have found It comes out about right for me.
It's usually me and one or two guys depending on job size, I stick with small to medium size jobs and all residental.